I might be doing myself out of a potential patent application here, but what do you think of this idea.
Vibration is used to speed up certain processes, in fact it has it`s own name of sonochemistry.
Now ever higher injection pressures are used to obtain better combustion more power and lower emissions, eg diesel engines with common rail and unit injector pumpe duse technology.
Some gas turbine fuel injectors use vibration from piezo-electric vibrators to obtain a smaller fuel size droplet and hence enormous emission reduction benefits.
What about applying this latter technique to cars/ trucks/ buses/ trains. Or has it been tried already?
© 2002 Flat in Fifth HJ Backroom worldwide pat pending
What d'ya fink?
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Fif,
I write as an early-retired senior patents engineer for a diesel engine company. I know you're not being serious about filing for a patent but I will still take the opportunity to respond!
1. You have disclosed the idea publically before filing a patent application so it's no longer patentable. However, assuming you had kept it to yourself ...
2. You would need to provide a full working description of the invention (an 'enabling disclosure') in the patent application and you would need to distinguish the advantages over what has gone before (the 'inventive step').
3. You might have to convince the patent examiner that the gas turbine injection system is in a different technical field to internal combustion engines, i.e. a person skilled in the latter is unlikely to have any technical knowledge of the former.
It was part of my responsibilities to maintain awareness of all published patent applications in my field of work (around 7000 per month worldwide) and I cannot recall any that related directly to what you are suggesting. I no longer have access to my files of course and I could be mistaken. However I would probably have remembered any such ideas emanating from professional source(as opposed to garden shed inventors).
There are a number of patents out there relating to piezo-electric *control* of fuel injectors but that would be of little concern to us because any claim of 'obviousness' from the examiner of your patent application could almost certainly be overcome since both the apparatus and method of your invention would be different to what has gone before (ignoring the gas turbine system for the moment).
Still awake?? Then you need to read my about-to-be-revised 'Introduction to Intellectual Property' at www.peterborough.net/business/articles/ipintro.asp.
Do I get the prize for this month's heaviest posting?
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The link I gave doesn't seem to work directly from the posting. If you REALLY want to get to it, go to www.peterborough.net/ then click on 'Business' then 'Intellectual Property Guide'.
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Dizzy,
Thanks for the input, and yes you were right I've no intention of applying, it was all very firmly tongue in cheek, with I hope the sense of humour/banter that the backroom is used to.
Actually I knew full well by publishing the idea openly it destroyed the chance of a patent, and that does not bother me at all in this particular field. There are a few in an unrelated applied science field that, well if I told you I'd have to send out Vlad's Mum and the hit squad. ;-)
You've actually answered my question as obviously you worked in the field, and can't recall such an application specifically on diesel engines. I came across it whilst I was reading a paper on the application of the Russian theory of problem solving called TRIZ. In this they mentioned a case where vibration, normally something engineers avoid, had been deliberately used as a positive effect, and it just got my brain cells working laterally.
Many thanks,
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Thanks, FiF. I couldn't think of any way to respond to your original posting with a typical Backroom banter as you call it but I didn't mean to be so seriously authoritive! Trouble is, once you've hit that 'Post This Message' button it's too late to have second thoughts!
I do recall an existing patent that is rather different to your idea but may be of interest in that it involves the beneficial use of vibration (note the slight indication of humour here!). The patent relates to a diesel engine unit injector where the engine lubricating oil is used to intensify the pressure of the fuel in the injector under electronic control (low pressure on a large area producing high pressure on a small area). When the engine has stood overnight in a cold climate the increase in viscosity of the engine oil retained within the injector can cause engine start-up problems. The answer is for the ECU to excite the oil in the injector for a few seconds to reduce its viscosity before allowing the starter motor to engage. (Another patent answers the same problem by having the ECU drain the injector at a pre-determined time after engine switch-off.)
Interesting about the Russian angle. A few years ago I was involved with a team of engineers searching with a completely open mind for new design concepts that might be worth following up. We found that the Russians had been isolated from the west for so long that they had looked at engineering problems and designs in totally different ways to us and had come up with some 'unusual' answers because of this. We didn't find anything worth running with in the end but I learned from it, i.e. don't restrict to traditional thought processes when faced with a problem but try to combine both conventional and lateral thinking.
I'm doing it again, aren't I? I guess I just don't have a sense of humour after all.
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I can see between you guys something's going to get invented. Even if only a tea-bag without holes to keep the flavour in over extended storage periods.
I know you didn't really mean it for this thread but do bear in mind I can put my official hat on if you ever get a post badly wrong and correct it as you wish.
David W
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